My Lords, British national Jimmy Lai’s case is a priority for this Government. We continue to call on the Hong Kong authorities to end their politically motivated prosecution and release him. The Foreign Secretary committed in the House of Commons that Ministers would raise Jimmy Lai’s case with the…
I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate. We are, as he has pointed out, absolutely committed to strengthening support for British nationals abroad, including by introducing a right to consular assistance in cases of human rights violations. The department is considering a package of measures, wh…
Did noble Lords miss me? The cyber threat to the UK is significant and growing; recent attacks on retailers and the Legal Aid Agency are just the latest examples of this. This Government are introducing the cyber security and resilience Bill to ensure that critical infrastructure and the digital ser…
The right reverend Prelate makes a timely and important intervention, given recent events. Our online and offline worlds are merging, and there is no clear differential any more. This is a different frontier in that crime. This is an evolving and increasingly sophisticated threat, and we need to mak…
The right reverend Prelate is quite right to draw attention to mental health impacts and the inequality of their incidence. As I mentioned, there has to be a cross-government approach because if we address it through health alone, we will not succeed. Factors such as poor housing, low income, workle…
I will start by pointing the right reverend Prelate to the Bus Services (No.2) Bill that we have discussed in the House in recent weeks. That is a huge commitment to supporting the decarbonisation of the bus fleet. That Bill will take steps to accelerate the decarbonisation of the bus fleet and inve…
My Lords, I too served on the committee while this report was being compiled. I also commend our chairman and our secretariat.
The report testifies to the decline of Britain’s high streets. They have been suffering from the current economic troubles of the nation, which tend to be described as a co…
My Lords, let me begin by saying that I totally sign up to all that my noble friend Lord Sharkey said and by adding to the words of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans. I listened with real interest to his discussion of post offices and banking hubs but, of course, his whole speech wa…
I am grateful to the right reverend Prelate for his question and I pay tribute to the work that he is doing with the communities that he is discussing. The Government believe that introducing a clawback mechanism such as he describes could still result in some of the wealthiest estates paying less i…
My Lords, I support the idea of having local inquiries, but some local authorities do not wish to have an inquiry. What will His Majesty’s Government do about that? Secondly, is the Minister convinced that these local authorities, some of which are financially challenged, have the resources to under…